Kairana exodus: As discrepancies emerge, BJP MP makes U-turn

'By mistake someone in my team mentioned Hindu families,' BJP MP Hukum Singh said.

Days after BJP MP Hukum Singh stirred a hornet’s nest by presenting a list of 346 'Hindu' families, who according to him were ‘forced’ to leave the Muslim-majority town of Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, it has now emerged that his ‘list’ included names of people who are dead or migrated in search for a better life.

According to reports, at least two dozen people who figure in Hukum Singh’s list left to find a job or for the future of their children as the small town of Kairana does not have good educational institutions.

Hukum Singh had alleged that Hindus were being extorted by Muslim gangs living in the area with the support of the ruling Samajwadi Party. But a probe initiated by the local administration found out that over 50 people named in Singh’s list had left the town 5-10 years ago, when the Akhilesh-govt was not even in power.

Read: Kairana incident is an eye-opener, says Amit Shah

These new reports come as a relief to the Akhilesh-led government that had asserted that many Hindus had migrated from Kairana long back and some of them are now dead.

As a political war rages on in Uttar Pradesh, the man in the eye of the storm, Hukum Singh has made a u-turn and has claimed that his team used the word 'Hindu' by mistake and that it is not a 'Hindu-Muslim issue'.

"By mistake someone in my team mentioned Hindu families. I asked them to change that. I stick to my stand that this is not a Hindu-Muslim issue. This is just a list of people of who have left under duress," said Hukum Singh on Tuesday.

The BJP has set up a seven-member committee consisting of four MPs and three leaders from Uttar Pradesh who would go to Kairana and probe the matter.